theDIBB - My Feet Are Sore! A week in Disney Sept 2018. Day 1 DHS & SeaWorld.

Today was originally planned as a Hollywood Studios morning due to morning Extra Magic Hours and a relaxing evening however when we saw that Orlando Magical Dining Month was offering dinner at Sharks Underwater Grill in Seaworld that then allowed park access afterwards we decided to go for that. We chose today because the park was open until 7pm which was later than any other day that week.

I woke every hour at quarter to the hour. The alarm was set for 5.45am but I was awake at 5am and just got up and got ready. I put on my magic band skin which was one I'd got from Magic Your Band. This was a custom one from a picture I uploaded.

I took a couple of pictures of the room. I love this lamp!

The view from our balcony.

We had booked an early breakfast ADR at Fresh Mediterranean Market at the Dolphin as something different since we weren’t restricted to DDP. This was a short walk from the Boardwalk Inn side.

The dining report for today is here.

The Boardwalk area is lovely in the dark.

We really enjoyed breakfast at Fresh although it was expensive at $28.99 each.

While at the Dolphin we popped to reception to collect a pair of glasses that Marie’s bosses Dad left when he stayed a few months ago. We had a good laugh as two security staff brought them up to reception. I joked that they must have been important to warrant two guards!

The lobby at The Dolphin is lovely so I had to take some pics!

We walked from The Dolphin to Hollywood Studios. The CM at check in had told us there was construction work so it would take 30 minutes. It took 20 from the entrance to Boardwalk. I would reckon the construction added at least 5 minutes as it takes you on a detour to the bus stops. We arrived around 8.15am and the park was busy already for EMH.

We had considered trying to queue for Slinky Dog but there was a queue to get into the queue!

It was already at 60 minutes. We decided to avoid Toy Story Land until it was time for our Toy Story Mania FP later and we would ride Slinky with a FP later in the week. I’m glad we did as about 5 minutes later the wait time changed to 120 minutes! Instead we wandered over to Star Tours and rode this as a walk on. We got a couple of scenes we hadn’t had before so that was good. We were surprised though to find that only half the shop was open!

It was now time for our first FP which was Star Tours so we rode that then wandered back round in time for March of the First Order. I love this so much and it’s so simple! It started raining at this point and we noticed the Stormtroopers basically walked up to the stage, turned and walk back. No show this time. I don’t know if the rain was a factor or not.

We hadn’t brought ponchos and naively thought it would be a brief shower. It wasn’t and we got soaked! We popped in to Launch Bay for a quick look in the hope the rain would die down. It did seem to but came back with a vengeance so by the time we had got to Toy Story Mania for our next FP we were drenched.

We arrived 5 minutes before our FP time but I’d heard you could get in around 5 minutes early and it turned out to be true so we went in.
This wasn’t the day to wander round Toy Story Land but we did make it as far as the rest rooms!

After this we went for an early lunch at Backlot Express getting a 10 piece chicken nuggets and a kids mac n cheese.
We did have a FP for Rock n Rollercoaster but neither of us were in the mood so we decided it was time to go. We were hot and tired and needed a break.

We walked back since the rain meant it was a bit cooler plus we had just missed a boat.

We cut in past the main pool at Boardwalk Villas.

We decided to pop to Walmart for a few items. We got some muffins for breakfast, milk, juice etc and pie.

We chilled in the room for a bit before getting changed to go to Seaworld for our dinner. I took some more balcony pics.

Orlando Magical Dining Month gave you a 3 course meal at certain restaurants for $35 and at Sharks Underwater Grill in Seaworld you got free parking at the park and could stay in the park after your meal. We had booked as early as possible which turned out to be 3.30pm. I’m not sure why but I thought 15 minutes would be enough time to get to Seaworld. It wasn’t. We ended up checking in 10 minutes after our reservation time and we weren’t even at the restaurant yet. You check in with a staff member at the entrance who then walks a group of you to the restaurant. We waited a few minutes for another party who presumably thought it wouldn’t take them long to get to SeaWorld! It turned out not to be a problem though that we were late however and no one said anything.

We had planned on going on the penguin ride as we’ve never managed to do this before however it was a 35 minute wait and we didn’t want to wait that long.

We had a wander round and saw the seals & sea lions then popped to the dolphin nursery.

The dolphins were really playful and we ended up in a bit of a splash zone which is why there are no pictures!

We were seriously flagging at this point so we just left and headed back to the resort.
We went back to the room and got ready for bed. Ant Man was on but I fell asleep watching it around 7.30pm!